HUNTING IN THE SELKIRKS. 159 



silently into the pile of blazing logs, while 

 the white hunter and I talked together. 



The morning after killing Bruin, we again 

 took up our march, heading up stream, that 

 we might go to its sources amidst the mount- 

 ains, where the snow fields fed its springs. 

 It was two full days' journey thither, but we 

 took much longer to make it, as we kept 

 halting to hunt the adjoining mountains. On 

 such occasions Animal was left as camp 

 guard, while the white hunter and I would 

 start by daybreak and return at dark utterly 

 worn out by the excessive fatigue. We knew 

 nothing of caribou, nor where to hunt for 

 them ; and we had been told that thus early 

 in the season they were above tree limit on 

 the mountain sides. Accordingly we would 

 climb up to the limits of the forests, but 

 never found a caribou trail ; and once or 

 twice we went on to the summits of the crag- 

 peaks, and across the deep snow fields in the 

 passes. There were plenty of white goats, 

 however, their trails being broad paths, es- 

 pecially at one spot where they led down to 

 a lick in the valley ; round the lick, for a 

 space of many yards, the ground was trampled 

 as if in a sheepfold. 



The mountains were very steep, and the 

 climbing was in places dangerous, when we 

 were above the timber and had to make our 

 way along the jagged knife-crests and across 

 the faces of the cliffs ; while our hearts beat 

 as if about to burst in the high, thin air. In 

 walking over rough but not dangerous ground 

 across slides or in thick timber my com- 

 panion was far more skilful than I was ; but 



36 



